CHAPTER 5. STATE POEM - Indiana Statutes

IC 1-2-5
    Chapter 5. State Poem

IC 1-2-5-1
Title and text
    Sec. 1. The poem of Arthur Franklin Mapes, Kendallville,Indiana, the title and text of which are set forth in full as a part of thissection, is hereby adopted as Indiana's official poem. It reads asfollows:

INDIANA

    God crowned her hills with beauty,
        Gave her lakes and winding streams,
    Then He edged them all with woodlands
        As the setting for our dreams.
    Lovely are her moonlit rivers,
        Shadowed by the sycamores,
    Where the fragrant winds of Summer
        Play along the willowed shores.
    I must roam those wooded hillsides,
        I must heed the native call,
    For a pagan voice within me
        Seems to answer to it all.
    I must walk where squirrels scamper
        Down a rustic old rail fence,
    Where a choir of birds is singing
        In the woodland . . . green and dense.
    I must learn more of my homeland
        For it's paradise to me,
    There's no haven quite as peaceful,
        There's no place I'd rather be.
    Indiana . . . is a garden
        Where the seeds of peace have grown,
    Where each tree, and vine, and flower
        Has a beauty . . . all its own.
    Lovely are the fields and meadows,
        That reach out to hills that rise
    Where the dreamy Wabash River
        Wanders on . . . through paradise.
(Formerly: Acts 1963, c.220, s.1.) As amended by Acts 1982, P.L.2,SEC.6.